


Arrow's Path

by barbex



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Oral Sex, Second Chances Romance, The Black Emporium Exchange, Vaginal Sex, save Felassan campaign
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:15:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25960456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barbex/pseuds/barbex
Summary: Gita Lavellan's hopes for a relationship are shattered once again and this isn't the first time that happened to her. Memories come to her, how the mysterious elf she loved once, left her one day and never returned. But memories are not enough and sometimes, in rare cases, memories return.
Relationships: Felassan/Female Lavellan (Dragon Age)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 9
Collections: Black Emporium 2020





	Arrow's Path

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Theneras](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theneras/gifts).



* * *

The map doesn't show her anything but she keeps staring at it, willing it to tell her something, anything to untangle the mess of emotions in her heart. She sings quietly, the words telling of the loneliness she feels in her heart.

Josephine's soft voice startles her. "Herald Gita," she says, leather slippers nearly soundless on the stone floor. 

"By the dreadwolf, you're quiet like a ghost."

"I'm sorry, Herald, I heard you sing. I thought I'd bring you some tea, you seemed to be restless today."

"Thank you, that's very kind of you." Steam rises up from the cup in a swirl, carrying the notes of flowers and fruits of her favorite tea. She drinks it slowly, letting the taste linger on her tongue. Her shoulders relax as she breathes in the scents and lets the tea warm her from inside.

"I...," Josephine plays with her quill, drawing a circle around a dot of ink on the paper on her drawing board. "I know it's hardly my business but I worry..."

Gita puts the cup down, careful not to touch the map. "What has you worried?"

Josephine looks up to meet her eyes. "These times are difficult and it may feel like we shouldn't reach for personal happiness while tied up in events that threaten every living being in Thedas. But even you deserve happiness in your life, Herald."

Gita looks back at the map and shakes her head. "I don't know much, Josephine, but I'm sure this is no talk for you to still be calling me Herald."

Josephine snickers and puts her clipboard on the table, holding her hand behind the flame as she blows out the candle on it. "Gita, you were happy, I saw it in your steps whenever you went into the rotunda. What happened?"

"I wish I knew. One moment, Solas kissed me and everything was right and the next moment he said that he can't and left." 

"Leliana told me that he left by the main gate yesterday morning. She wondered if she should have stopped him."

"We can hardly lock him up, can we? He's a free man." The most free elf she has ever seen, apart from — apart from the other she doesn't want to think about.

"Did he leave forever?"

"He left a note that he will return but he didn't specify a time. And I'm..." she flexes her hand, the mark flaring as anger wells up in her. "I'm staring at this map like a love sick puppy, wondering where he went."

"It's not a mistake to hope for love," Josephine says softly. 

Gita laughs out. "Oh it is, trust me, I have long and painful experiences with hope for love and I cannot recommend it."

Josephine just looks at her and Gita takes a breath and instead of saying some platitude about her past being a mysterious mess, everything tumbles out of her. About the stranger who stole her heart three years back and then disappeared. 

"Maybe that's why I'm such a mess right now because it happened again." They have moved to the sofa and Josphine sits next to her, watching her intently. "I swore to never let this happen again and it didn't. I was content, nobody had my heart in their hand, I had friends and control of my life. And now this." She throws her head back. "And I didn't even like him at first."

"Why not?"

"I always felt he was hiding something and a lot of his explanations don't really make sense if you think about it." She pauses, letting the first conversations with him play back in her mind. "Actually, I still think that. He told us of many things but he didn't really say much about who he is."

Josephine nods. "Yes, I know what you mean. I have to trust Leliana's assessment of him though. But please, tell me of that stranger you met back when you were with your clan."

"His name was Felassan, which is a strange name for a dalish, meaning slow arrow. He..." She shakes her head and can't fight the smile spreading on her face. "He seemed to be dalish but he never said what clan he came from; his manners, his vallaslin, it was all not quite right, not quite dalish. I was suspicious of him at first and he... it seemed like he didn't quite know what he wanted or what he was meant to do."

She takes another sip of tea and closes her eyes, his ageless face clear in front of her mind's eye. "He seemed to be lost, like a lost spirit. We welcomed him into our camp, on our way through the Free Marches and for a while he was just... he was just there, watching. One day, he asked to come with me for my trail through the woods, picking herbs, fruits and roots and everything else the forest gives my people."

"He was surprisingly knowledgeable of the herbs we picked, but he pronounced their names slightly different. I thought his dialect was just some orlesian influence but after a while I wasn't so sure anymore. He knew things, old elvhenan sayings and spells, things that I thought had been lost to history, strange spells and even some ways of making potions that were new to all of us."

"Did he share his knowledge only with you?" Josephine asks.

"No, when I suggested that he show his potions or spells to someone, he did but only if I asked him to. And he only ever walked with me in the woods. I was — " she smiles at the memory, "I felt so special. There was something mysterious about him and he had chosen me to — " She laughs out. "Nothing new about any of this. I was young and naive and quickly developed an embarrassing crush on him."

"It's not embarrassing to fall in love," Josephine says gently.

"It's not? It certainly feels like it." She wipes her eyes, chasing tears away that she won't let fall.

"What happened?"

"We... we had a wonderful time for a while, fun and carefree. But sometimes he would say something about trouble coming and then his eyes would turn dark." She pictures him, the smile that made his face look so young drifting away and how he suddenly looked old and wise, staring into a future only he could see. "And then..."

"He disappeared?"

Gita spits out a dry laugh. "Sounds familiar, doesn't it?"

"These things happen, it has nothing to do with you."

"I know. But sometimes it feels like it."

Josephine is silent for a while, watching the moonlight spilling into the room from the windows. "Is there anything I can do?"

"You listened to my ramblings, that was helpful enough."

Josephine stands up and nods towards the bed. "I think you should get some sleep. Tomorrow will look brighter after a good night's sleep."

"I'll try." She leads Josephine towards the stairs and waves when she leaves through the door. Looking at her bed from this side, the idea of her sleeping in these piles of soft pillows feels ridiculous. She pulls out her old pack from under the bed and rolls her mat out on the balcony, drawing blankets and furs tight around herself to lie down to watch the stars as she sings to herself.

~~~

_"Lethallan, what has you thinking so hard?" Felassan sits down next to her with an unworldly grace._

_"Something you said, how things will change soon."_

_"Don't listen to my ramblings, I'm like an old halla, bumping my antlers against the trees." He leans over to her and takes her hand in his. "Things will always change, that's the easiest prophecy anyone can make."_

_Gita holds her breath, willing her heartbeat to slow down again. "So you're lying to me?"_

_Felassan brushes a strand of hair from her cheek and then lets his palm linger there. "I will never lie to you."_

_"But you won't tell me everything either."_

_"Maybe not." Felassan leans closer, his lips almost touching her lips. "But I'll always tell you what you need to know."_

_Gita threads her fingers through the hair at the back of his head, pulling him closer until she feels his lips on hers. "And that should be enough for me?" she murmurs against the silken touch of his lips._

_"That's all I can give, my singing flower."_

_The endearment freezes her for the length of a breath. Then she kisses him, drawing him tighter to her._

~~~

"I am pleased to report that," Josephine squints at her clipboard, "Keeper Istimaethoriel now has a seat on the new city council of Wycome." She smiles at Gita. "It looks like your clan is in a much better position now to advocate for a good relationship with the human population."

Gita's finger traces the tendrils of the Mianter River, where they embrace the city of Wycome. "And they can finally settle. They can make a home."

"I never realized," Leliana says quietly.

"That being travellers was not their choice?" Gita asks with a sharp bite in her voice.

Leliana's face is hidden under her hood as she bows her head. "I apologize."

Gita stops herself from rolling her eyes, Leliana has made progress recently but sometimes her ignorance still grates on her. She takes a breath and lets her annoyance flow out of her. The air tastes stale on her tongue, like the inside of a stone prison. She's been trapped between these walls for far too long, playing the shemlen games with pretty dresses and smiling when they call her Herald.

"The Emerald Graves, that's where I'm going," she says under her breath.

"Inquisitor?" Cullen asks.

"I need something real around me, trees, flowers, birds." She waves her hand vaguely around. "All of this, it's suffocating me."

Before anybody can protest or ask questions, Josephine sets her clipboard on the table with a loud clap. Every head turns to her and her tone allows no disagreement. "The Inquisitor needs a break. We've been asking a lot of her recently and she deserves a vacation."

Gita smiles gratefully at Josephine. "While I'm there, I can find out who the Freemen are and how we can protect the refugees."

Cassandra steps forward. "You're not going alone, it's too dangerous."

"Of course you're coming with me. And I'm taking Cole and Dorian too, there're elven ruins everywhere in the Graves, they might have interesting insights."

The embarrassed silence is proof that everyone is aware that she usually would have taken Solas to such locations, counting on his unique knowledge of elven history. 

"Shall we then?"

"We'll be ready in one hour," Cassandra says with a nod and hurries out.

~~~

_"Why don't you talk to them?" Felassan asks._

_A group of elves, city-elves, walks past their hiding place. They don't notice the two dalish elves in the dense foliage._

_"They're not like us," Gita says when the group has moved further away._

_"Because they live in the city?"_

_"Because they betrayed us." That's what the Keeper always said._

_Felassan spreads his fingers, letting magic flare out like a net over the shrubs they've been hiding in, muffling any noise they make. "How can they betray what they don't even know?"_

_Gita watches him, frowning. She doesn't quite know what to say, somehow all the things the keeper has taught her sound hollow. "They don't care for our history, they believe in the Maker instead of the Creators."_

_"Such crime."_

_"We are the Dalish, keepers of the lost lore, walkers of the lonely path." The words come easy to her, phrases she has spoken since she was a child. "We are the last of the Elvhenan— "_

_"And they are not?" Felassan interrupts. His face is impassive but his eyes glitter with mischief._

_"They made a choice!"_

_"All of them?"_

_Gita gets up and stomps away from their hiding place. Felassan always does this, nagging her with questions she has no answers to. She turns and isn't surprised when he is right behind her, even though she didn't hear his steps. She glares at him. "Did you ask your keeper these kinds of questions too?"_

_For once, Felessan doesn't meet her eyes and the silence stretches between them._

_She steps forward to look closer at the vallaslin on his face, a pattern that looks familiar but doesn't resemble the symbols of any god she knows. With her fingertip, she traces a tattooed line from his brow to his temple and looks in his eyes. "Are you even dalish?"_

_His gaze snaps to her and he closes the distance between them, holding her hand to his face. "My singing flower, don't ask questions you don't want to hear the answer to."_

_He kisses her, softly, and she knows if she were to ask the question again, he would leave. Deep in her heart, she already knows the answer anyway._

~~~

The air smells of elfroot and blooming laurels and rashvines. Gita breathes in deep, filling her lungs until they almost hurt. The scents bring up memories of carefree days running on moss covered ground, chasing sunspots between the trees. If she holds her breath, she can hear a rabbit scurrying through the undergrowth and she can almost feel her hunting bow that she used to wear on her back. Now she wears only a tiny crossbow on her belt and a staff on her back. 

"Dorian," she says quietly, "there's a rabbit in the bushes over there, that would go nicely with our stew tonight."

Dorian makes a production out of rolling his eyes and delicately swinging his staff forward. "My mentors would be so proud of me to see me hunting rabbits with my talents."

Gita raises her eyebrow at him. "Cassandra can hardly hunt it with her sword and I might just fry them with this." She flexes her hand with the glowing anchor. "And Cole always gets so sad when he kills an animal." 

The truth is, she could do it herself but she loves watching Dorian use magic. He is so confident and bold at it, not even dalish mages show off like him. He never had to hide anything, never had to keep his abilities a secret and she loves seeing that.

Dorian swings his staff in a tight pattern, blue and red light twisting around it, and then raises his hand dramatically. Two rabbits float out of the bushes, caught in Dorian's magic. Their eyes are wide and their legs twitch. "There, who would I be if I let us go hungry."

"Please kill them quickly," Gita says. "They don't deserve to feel terror like that."

A twitch of Dorian's fingers, and the animals fall still and sink to the ground. One of the inquisition soldiers picks them up and carries them over to the fire, eyeing Dorian nervously over his shoulder. 

Cassandra comes back from her patrol. "This is a good place to camp, I checked the surroundings, I didn't find anything worrying. There's a ruin over there," she points to a spot behind the line of trees, "but it doesn't look like anybody has been there in a long time."

Gita nods and hopes that her face doesn't show her amusement. "I'm sure we're being watched but if they don't want to talk to us, there's nothing we can do anyway." This far in the Dales, they probably passed dalish scouts several times on their way.

Cassandra whips around as if she expects a dalish to stand behind her. "You mean the dalish know that we're here?"

"Yes, and they're probably wondering if I'm your prisoner."

"Herald!" Cassandra calls out.

"It's not that absurd," she says as she sits down and begins to skin the rabbits. "You did it before."

"But..." Cassandra turns deep red and Gita laughs out. 

"Don't worry, I'm not holding it against you, not anymore."

Cassandra can only nod, her lips pulled into a thin line and her cheeks redder than the core of an Embrium flower. 

Gita smiles and sits down by the fire, placing one of the rabbits in front of her knees. She starts to sing a little song and focuses her inner power into her fingertip, letting it glow softly, and her magic cuts through the rabbit's hide to prepare them for skinning.

~~~

_"The shems hate their mages." Gita shields her eyes as she watches a troop of templars strut through the forest like they own it._

_"I have noticed. It's rather sad," Felassan says, peeling strips of bark from a tree._

_Gita watches him putting bits in his mouth to chew and shakes her head. "You'd be better off chewing the leaves."_

_"That's what I heard but I believe you have to try one new thing every day." His smile lights up his whole face and when he pops another bit of bark in his mouth, he winks at her._

_Gita turns back to the troop of templars, hiding the heat of her cheeks. The templars have come up to the muddy bank of the river and seem to be unsure how to proceed. Felassan's spell has made the mud even softer and more sticky and the templars poke at it with their boots. At last, they turn around and go back the way they came, hopefully to return to whatever oppressive tower has spit them out._

_She watches them until the forest has swallowed them up. Summoning a bird to her shoulder, she sings a short message to it and sends it to the Keeper. They'll have to watch for templars some more but at least the immediate danger is over._

_Watching the bird fly away, she almost trips over Felassan, who sits on the ground with a dead rabbit in front of his knees. "What are you doing?" she asks as she steps around him._

_"Sit with me."_

_She settles down in front of him, knowing that he will teach her something now._

_"Your magic should be precise like a knife, subtle like a brush of your fingertips." His fingertip glows and a cut appears in the fur of the rabbit. "Try it."_

_Gita grumbles, "I did hope for something less subtle, to be honest."_

_Felassan smiles at her and raises his glowing fingertip towards her. A lock of her hair falls into her lap and he picks it up, twirling it between his fingertips._

_"Hey!"_

_"Patience, vhenan."_

_It takes her the rest of the afternoon to learn to cut with her magic that precisely. The rabbit carcass carries many burn marks but at last she manages to cut into the hide without singeing the flesh._

_"Very good." Felassan leans forward to her, his long hair falling past his face. "Now take a lock of my hair."_

_"No," Gita cries out, "I'll burn you."_

_"I know you can do it." He closes his eyes, smiling softly and Gita lifts her finger, willing it to stop shaking and calls to her magic. A glowing line appears in a strand of Felassan's hair, burning brightly for the blink of an eye and then the hairs float to the ground._

_Felassan opens his eyes, grinning widely. "I knew you could do it, my singing flower. And you didn't burn my ear off."_

_"Shut up." Gita throws her arms around his neck and kisses him._

~~~

"I want to take a look at those elven ruins before the rabbits are done." Gita hooks her staff on her back and attaches a waterskin to her belt. Cassandra starts to get up but stops when Gita waves her hand. "Alone, I'll be right over there, I don't need an escort."

Cassandra is clearly not happy with that but nods. Dorian lies with his head on his pack in a sunspot and stirs the stew by lazily drawing a circle with his finger in the air. He waves her off with a gesture without looking. Cole is nowhere to be seen and she knows that if he decides to accompany her, she couldn't stop him anyway. 

The ruins are truly ruined, just bricks and parts of walls left standing so long ago, that nothing about them gives away what they once were. Maybe it wasn't even a significant place, just a house someone had in the woods because they liked how the sun was shining through the trees. The shadows and sunspots dance beautifully over an overgrown wall. Dots of colors peek out between the vines and leaves, glowing when the sunlight falls on them.

Gita steps closer, pushing the foliage away until she can see the whole pattern. It's a wolf, drawn in crude strokes, simple angles like the statues scattered everywhere where elves used to live. Solas always touched those statues as if they were old friends. Despite the simple design, she can't tear her eyes away. It looks like the wolf watches her. 

"Don't watch me, dreadwolf," she whispers at the image.

"He wants you to come back later."

Gita just about jumps out of her skin and presses a hand to her mouth to stop herself from screaming. 

Cole sits on the ground next to her, looking at a bug crawling over the moss. 

"Fenedhis!" She takes a deep breath and forces herself to calm down. "Who wants me to come back?"

"You'll know."

"Who is it? Solas?"

"No."

"Then who?" 

"Later," Cole says and disappears. 

Gita gnashes her teeth and sings three verses of a children song before she makes her way back to the camp. She watches Cole as they eat but she knows that it's no use trying to get anything out of him if he doesn't want to tell it. 

When night falls, she waits for Dorian and Cassandra to retreat into the tents and nods towards the soldiers keeping watch. She ducks into her own tent and crawls out of it on the other side, unnoticed. Her steps are light and silent, the moon bright enough to see where she steps. 

The walls of the ruin look like sleeping animals hunkered down and frozen in time. With a tiny flame on her hand for light, she feels along the ruined walls until she finds the drawing of the dreadwolf again. She transfers her flame to the withered remains of a bloom and studies the crude drawing again. In the flickering shadows, the head of the wolf seems to move. She steps back, staring at the glowing eyes.

"Lethallan, what has you thinking so hard?"

She whips around, her hands hissing with new fire, ready to attack. An elf materializes from the shadows. His eyes shine in green and the marks on his face, elegant lines tattooed over his temples and cheeks, tear at her heart in familiarity.

"No." She steps closer. "No, it can't be." She raises her flaming fist to shine the light on his face. "Where have you been?"

He smirks. "Don't ask questions you don't want to hear the answer to, my singing flower."

"You!" She kills the fire on her hands and punches him on the arm instead. "You... you ass!" 

Felassan raises his hand as if he wants to touch her face but lets his arm drop and looks down instead. "I apologize."

"Felassan," she breathes out. "I thought... You said you'd be back and then you never..." 

"I wanted to, believe me." He tilts his head to look in her eyes. "I was quite busy and then... for a long time I wasn't..." He gestures to his head, his voice sounding hollow. "I wasn't here." 

At his expression, her anger evaporates and she puts her hand on his shoulder. "What do you mean?" 

"When you die in the Fade, you lose who you are."

Her hand moves to his cheek, feeling the heat of his skin in her palm. "How did you die in the Fade?" 

A pained expression rushes over his face and he looks away, leaning into the touch of her hand. "Can you trust me to believe that I will answer your questions later?"

A tear rolls out of his eye, sliding down to her fingers on his cheek. She wipes it away, brushing her thumb under his eye to the swirling lines on his temple. "Yes, vhenan," she whispers. "I trust you."

He gasps and in a rush he is on her, around her, crushing her in a tight embrace. Words tumble from his mouth, a stream of the old language that she feels more than understands. 

"What happened to you?" she whispers.

Felassan presses his nose into her neck as if he tries to breathe all of her in. He pulls her closer. "Please, touch me."

"I am, I am touching you." She couldn't stop if she wanted to. She has to feel if the vein on his neck still sings with blood and magic under her fingertip, if he still blushes when she touches the tip of his ear. "I missed you."

Tears still fall from Felassan's eyes, drawing glittering streaks through the tattooed patterns on his cheeks. "If I could have, I would have missed you too."

"You will tell me everything?"

Felassan leans back and looks into her eyes. "Everything I can."

Gita nods and lets go of him. She takes a step back and raises her arms, calling her magic forth. With a spell he himself has taught her, she raises a protective barrier around them, making them invisible and inaudible for outsiders and keeping them warm. It grows and glimmers in a curve, power flowing from her fingertips until she is satisfied. As she lowers her arms, Felassan smiles at her.

"You are magnificent, ma vhenan."

"Come here," she growls and pulls him forward, catching his lips with hers. His kiss is as soft and as heated as she remembers, and a shudder runs through her body. He clings to her like a drowning man, tumbling them over onto the old stone floor, wrapping his arms around her and raining kisses on her neck.

Suddenly he freezes and a single sob rips through him like a punch. It leaves him curled up against her, his face pressed into her neck and her shirt wet from his tears. 

"Felassan?" She strokes his hair, unsure of what to do. "Talk to me, ma vhenan, how can I help?"

He shudders and she almost can't hear him speak. "Just hold me."

"Yes, I'm holding you. I'm here, it's gonna be alright." Stroking from his hair down his back, again and again, she sings softly until his breathing has become calm and steady. 

He sighs deep from his chest, and then turns his face to her. "This is not what I wanted to happen."

"Welcome to my life then." She laughs, the tension from the last moments tumbling out of her. "Wild shit just happening, that's basically my day to day life." 

He kisses her neck again, dragging his lips under her jaw as he pulls himself closer to her. "I'm sorry for being like this but it's been so long that I felt... that I touched..."

"Don't be sorry." Gita pulls the laces on his shirt loose and slides her hands under the fabric. He throws his head back and gasps, his fingers curling into her sides. "Let's get this off," she whispers, pulling at the fabric. 

They both sit up long enough to get rid of their coats and shirts. Gita spreads her coat out for them to lie on and throws herself against Felassan again, toppling him over. He moans when she presses her breasts against him and his hands roam over her back as if he tries to map every dip and valley of her. She is just as needy as he is, desperate to touch him, to feel him, to take in his scent.

He flips them over, hovering over her as he kisses her nipples and then down her stomach until he reaches the apex of her thighs. He pulls at her pants impatiently until they are off and he unties his own at the same time. Finally free of any hindering clothes, he returns to her mons, his breath flowing over her folds and she moans as he kisses her clit. 

"My singing flower, I have been dreaming of your scent and your taste ever since I —" he interrupts himself and before she can ask what he wanted to say, he descends on her like a parched man drinking from her. Whatever coherent thought she had, it flies away as he licks and kisses her with single minded precision, steadily raising her pleasure until she writhes helplessly under his touch.

"Sing for me, my flower," he murmurs against her, watching her with hungry eyes as he kisses and sucks. She barely has enough time to take a breath before she cries out in bliss. Her climax rushes through her, a wave expanding out of her like magic as he keeps licking her, moaning when he tastes her fluids. 

With a sigh, tension flows out of her body and she raises herself up on her elbows. She stretches out her hand to him. "Come here." 

He crawls up to her and she draws him close, kissing his wet lips, tasting herself. His kiss is ravenous, near frantic, his fingers tangling in her hair and stroking over her ears. She does the same to him, caressing his ears until he moans into her mouth as his tongue slides against hers. His erection presses against her side and he undulates his hips in search for friction. She isn't even sure if he's aware of it. He presses his whole body against her in desperate need, searching for every bit of her skin to caress. Still kissing him, she slips her hand between them and touches him softly, wrapping her fingers around his hardness.

"Oh," he groans. "I'm afraid this will be over embarrassingly quickly if you keep doing that."

"Well then," she spreads her legs and tilts her hips towards him, "we can skip to the next step for now." 

"For now?" His eyes burn with hunger as he settles between her legs. With one thrust, he sheathes himself inside of her and slowly releases a breath between his teeth. 

Gita angles her hips up and takes him deeper. "We have time for more later." Burning desire sits at the bottom of her stomach; the familiarity of his body, the desire in his eyes awakening something in her that she had been convinced to have lost forever. "Fenedhis, I missed you so much."

"Vhenan, Gita, please forgive me." He closes his eyes and begins to move, thrusting slowly. 

She isn't sure what exactly he's asking forgiveness for, his long disappearance, his secretive behaviour, or just that he isn't able to draw out their love making like he used to do. She watches him, how he frowns and clenches his jaw, fighting for control. But his thrusts soon turn erratic and a cry breaks free from him as he spills into her after a short time. Finally, he relaxes and collapses next to her.

Stroking his hair, she watches him as the frown disappears from his handsome face. "How long has it been?" she asks quietly.

Felassan opens his eyes. Darkness seems to dwell in them, a deep rooted sorrow that she has never seen before. "Years. It's been years since anybody has touched me. And for the last year, I haven't felt anything." He wraps his arms around her and presses his face into her neck. His lashes are wet on her skin. "Your friend, Cole, he helped me."

"How did he find you?"

"I don't know. But he found the part of me that was lost in the Fade and gave it back to me. And suddenly... everything came back."

"And before that?"

"Emptiness. A hollow cavern where my memories were. I —" Felassan releases her from his arms and rolls on his back. "Now it feels like a bad dream."

Gita leans over him and kisses his neck. "You don't have to talk about it. You're here, you're alive and you definitely feel now." She plants kisses on his chest, while she strokes over his thighs, slowly working her way to his hardening shaft.

He gasps, straining towards her touch. "Please, make me feel again."

"With pleasure," she says with a grin and takes him in her hand.

***

The night sky turns from black to grey by the time Felassan is sated and Gita wonders if she will ever walk again. She's dozing off already when Felassan begins to speak. 

"After Cole woke me up, he told me to come to Tarasyl'an Te'las, to Skyhold. I found it, I found you but I..." He turns to Gita and swallows. "I also found him."

"Who?"

"Solas."

"You know him." It's not even a question. 

"Yes. And I had to avoid him. He can't know that I am alive."

Any sort of tiredness evaporates from her mind when awareness strikes her. She sits up and pokes her finger against his chest. "He is like you, you're like him!"

Felassan stays calm, almost frozen, looking up to her with dark eyes. "And what do you think am I?"

"Old," she rasps. "Of ancient times."

He dips his head in a slow nod, his eyes unblinking on hers.

"And Solas is too."

He laughs out and looks to the side, at the wall where the drawing of the dreadwolf seems to watch them. "Compared to him, I am but a child."

"Why is he here? Why does he fight for the inquisition?"

Felassan takes her hand with the anchor and turns it palm up, stroking the glowing cut with his fingertip. The green fire of the mark wells up, following his fingertip. He looks in her eyes. "The inquisition is nothing. You. You and this anchor, you are everything."

Her chest constricts and it hurts to breathe. "But... he said himself that we have to stop Corypheus, he fights with us to stop him — "

"For now, your goals align. But once the tevinter mage is defeated — "

Gita shakes his hand off and grabs him by the shoulders. "You have to tell me everything."

Felassan opens his mouth but his face contorts in a soundless scream and he falls forward against her shoulder, trembling all over. With a heaving breath, he calms down, sagging against her. He whispers, as if he's afraid that someone could hear him, even inside the soundproof barrier around them. "His power over me is still immens. Things I wish to tell you, I cannot physically say."

"You cannot tell me of his plans?"

"Forgive me, my singing flower." He cradles her head in his hand and kisses her. With a sigh, he breaks the kiss and presses his forehead against hers. "Promise me to be careful."

"I promise."

"Solas is a formidable ally and he will fight with you for your common goal. But do not trust him any further."

"I won't." Gita strokes over his ears and leans back to look in his eyes. "What will you do now?"

"I cannot stay." Felassan slides his thumb over her sheeks. "He probably already senses me and if he finds me... he won't make the same mistake twice."

Gita swallows against the tightness in her throat. "Will I ever see you again?"

Felassan lets silence stretch between them, until at last he whispers, "I will be with you again. I won't let him take you from me."

She can't stop the tears anymore, letting them fall silently. "But, ma vhenan..."

He shakes his head. "Do not worry about me, my singing flower." He kisses the tears away until she stops crying and leans his forehead against hers again. "We'll be together again soon." 

With a sigh he stands up and dresses himself. Gita does the same, knowing that the air will be cold once the protective barrier is gone. Even dressed, once she collapses the barrier, she cannot stop herself from shivering in the cold morning air.

Felassan wraps his coat around his shoulders and turns to her. "Have you ever been to Val Royeaux?"

"Yes, several times actually. We even went to a ball that the empress — "

"The empress?" Felassan looks at her with renewed fire in his eyes. "Have you, by any chance, met an elf named Briala?"

"Yes," Gita says with a smirk. "I actually made sure that she controls the empire from behind the curtains."

"Oh." Felassan smiles widely. "Very good. You should meet her again."

"You know her?"

He grins again. "Yes. The two of you should find a lot to talk about." He steps towards her and lifts her chin with his fingers. "Dareth shiral, ma vhenan. This will not be forever."

"Ma vhenan, dareth shiral," Gita says, forcing herself not to cry.

He walks backwards, as if he can't make himself turn. "Keep singing, ma vhenan." 

Gita blinks and he is gone. Only shadows remain and the crude drawing of a wolf on the wall, whose eyes seem to glower at her.

  
  



End file.
